FORMER Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil has called for the proposal basic income for all citizens to be piloted in areas with the highest levels of poverty.

The SNP MSP said the Scottish Government should launch four or five year trials of the scheme in areas that have been hit by mass unemployment.

Finland has introduced a two-year pilot scheme where every adult gets a set minimum amount of cash regardless of earnings.

However, Neil said Scotland could be the first major industrial society in the world to try out a citizen’s income.

He said the UK Government would need to co-operate so the payments system could be funded, due to most welfare benefits powers still being reserved to Westminster. "The UK's Department for Work and Pensions would need to provide funds for it though," he said. Adding that local councils would also be needed to help run the scheme in the pilot areas, as part of a "tripartite system".

Neil said a pilot would be necessary to ensure the flat payment did not act as a disincentive to work or lead to higher levels of bureaucracy.

The Airdrie and Shotts MSP said areas that have been ravaged by job cuts and industrial meltdown in the west of Scotland would benefit from the shake-up.

However, he said it should also be piloted in Highland and rural areas with high levels of poverty, as well as in housing schemes that have problems with social deprivation .

Trails of a guaranteed citizen’s income project are already being considered in Glasgow and Fife.

But Neil said that piloting it across a fifth of Scotland, in the areas with the highest recorded levels of social deprivation, could drastically cut inequality.

Neil said: "The whole objective is to lift people out of poverty. The citizens' income is an idea whose time may have come even though it has never been tried in an advanced industrial country.

"There should be a pilot in Scotland in the poorest 20 per cent of areas, with four or five year pilots to see what the impact is so we can see if it has reduced bureaucracy and that it doesn't impact on the incentive to work.

"It would need to run for at least four or five years and be properly funded.""

The SNP's spring conference in 2016 backed the principle of a universal basic income to replace the current welfare system.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said that further work was needed on the Citizens Basic Income (CBI) before it could be introduced.

The spokesperson said: “Further research is needed to see how CBI would work in an advanced economy which is why we will continue to watch international experiments closely as they develop. We welcome potential trials in Scotland, such as those in early stages of discussion by Fife Partnership and Glasgow Council.

"However, any trial in Scotland would require the full cooperation and agreement of the UK Government, which retains key powers over tax and welfare.”

A HM Treasury spokesperson, in response, said: “The Scottish Government has the power under the Scotland Act 2016 to introduce new benefits.”

Local councils body Cosla said the idea of a citizens income should be "given serious consideration”.